Tim Grobaty: Flugtag will come in for a Long Beach landing in 2013

RED BULLISH ON LONG BEACH: Flugtag, the mammoth collection of hilarious aeronautic failures, will once again take to the skies, however briefly, in Long Beach in August 2013.

Long Beach was one of five cities that hosted the Red Bull Flugtag (German for air day, or air show) in 2010, drawing more than 100,000 visitors in what was termed the biggest one-day event attendance in the city's history.

John Sangmeister, owner of Gladstone's at the Pike at Rainbow Harbor, tipped us to the news, which was confirmed by a Red Bull spokeswoman.

It's great news for Sangmeister, whose seafood restaurant is right next to the launch ramp that three dozen crews of human-powered flying machines use as a runway as they push their craft - anything ranging from a grand piano to a giant pig to a mock-up of President Obama's head - and invariably crash into the sea after a few seconds of glorious flight.

It's great news, in fact, for everyone running a business anywhere near the event, because in 2010 sales soared a lot loftier than the Flugtag gizmos, with local businesses reporting numbers rivaling or surpassing the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Anything close to the venue in 2010 had crowds lined up outside, and its was practically impossible to move around anywhere on South Pine Avenue.

The event was a successful marketing tool, too. The Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted two dozen current and potential clients aboard a yacht docked within splashing distance of the doomed aircraft.

Red Bull's famed semiflying event has been an international spectacle since its initial launch in Vienna in 1991. Since then, it's been held in about 50 cities around the world.

The aircraft, if you can call them that, are built to Red Bull specs by teams from colleges, businesses and elsewhere and are launched from a pier that's 30 feet high - in Long Beach's case, it will be at the foot of Pine Avenue at Rainbow Harbor.

Competitors are judged by distance, creativity and showmanship.

In the early stages, teams submit rough drafts of their plans, which are judged by experts (we were a judge in 2010, to give you an idea of the level of expertise) and winnowed down to three dozen contestants

Details will be released closer to the event, but start having your big ideas now.

ROCKY ROAD DE-ROCKED: Closer to the ground, the stretch of Wardlow Road between Los Alamitos Boulevard and Stevely Avenue on the city's east side is as smooth as a baby's bottom again.

For about six months, 3,000 "raised pavement markers" were studded on both sides of Wardlow Road in an attempt to slow cars as they crossed over the San Gabriel (605) Freeway heading west into the Plaza or east into El Dorado Park Estates.

We went through six sets of teeth and two sets of shocks driving over the things. Driving on top of the breakwater was a smoother ride. And for all that, the 3,000 punishing dots failed to do their job and were removed.

"We were experimenting with the dots," says city traffic engineer Dave Roseman. "We were hoping for a 5 mph reduction on the stretch, and we didn't accomplish that task."

Motorists regularly exceed the 45-mph speed limit on that part of Wardlow.

So, now what do we do?

"We keep trying. We've reduced the width of the lanes. They were more than 13 feet wide - most roads downtown are 10 feet wide and even freeway lanes are 11."

Narrower roads equal slower traffic, says Roseman. And, even if that fails, there's more in the speeding-stifling arsenal, including new gadgetry that will be able to spot speeders and stop them with a traffic signal that would turn red briefly. That signal would be installed, if necessary, at the firehouse at El Dorado Regional Park, about midway between the bridges over the San Gabriel River and the 605 Freeway.

NEW KIDS IN THE HALL: As a member of the Long Beach City College Hall of Fame, we take great glee in congratulating the 2012 inductees, who probably haven't been told yet that they have to put on goofy costumes and sing to us hall members as part of a brutal weeklong hazing process. The inductees, who will be honored at the Long Beach City College Alumni Hall of Fame luncheon on Nov. 2, are Lori Brault, retired nurse and community healthcare volunteer; Jim Choura, owner of Choura Events (including the Grand on Willow Street); Ernest Mitchell, U.S. Fire Administrator and former Pasadena fire chief; and John Molina, trophy husband of Michelle Molina and CFO of Molina Healthcare.